


Six Shots To Go

by CourierNinetyTwo



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other, Polyamory, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-14
Updated: 2015-11-14
Packaged: 2018-05-01 15:23:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5210879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CourierNinetyTwo/pseuds/CourierNinetyTwo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How CFVY started out apart, and all became a team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Coco/Velvet

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is structured a lot differently than my others. All of the pair combinations for C/F/V/Y are in this fic, although they’re not necessarily in chronological order. It’s just meant to highlight their different dynamics as they shift over time. I’m also aware some sections are shorter than others due to my initial intention with this story changing a lot over time, but I hope it’s enjoyable nonetheless.
> 
> Set in the same universe as Pour Some Sugar On Me, so Fox is a trans man.

Being with Coco shouldn’t have been as easy as it was.

Velvet could count off enough reasons to take up all ten fingers without much thought, more than that if pressed. Everyone knew the Adel family made their fortune selling armor and weapons, but their biggest clients were the military and police – humans, exclusively. The trio of fashion subsidiaries to their name were all marketed to the upper crust, tailored suits and cutting-edge skirts hiding bulletproof material and laced with Dust, the kind of mass production that could only be afforded when one had a lucrative and exclusive contract with the Schnee Dust Company.

Coco herself was branded with all the affectations of such a family legacy – the clothes, the credit cards, even monogrammed luggage – and an only child to boot. The perfect recipe for arrogance if there ever was one, but from the moment they’d met in the Emerald Forest, fighting off an onslaught of cave-born Grimm with Fox and Yatsuhashi, Coco had simply been  _confident_. It was real enough to bottle, paired with a charisma that drew people to her like a magnet. Velvet was used to fitting in the slightest of spaces, in-between and out of sight, but Coco filled a room just by walking into it, the presence of power without pressure or expectation.

Yet she was undeniably human too. Not a drop or trace of Faunus blood to speak of across the family lines, else Menagerie’s news cycle would have made a note of it whenever the Adels topped the headlines. Velvet had waited for the inevitable remarks after they went from being a group of adrenaline-high kids to CFVY, a team where she wasn’t leader and outnumbered three-to-one, but the only thing Coco had asked was whether or not she was born continent-side. When she said no, the answer had been a shock and a thrill all at once.

“I didn’t think so.” Sunglasses or not, Velvet could sense the pure satisfaction in Coco’s stare. “That accent’s the cherry on top of the whole package. Just more proof our team’s going to be the best this school’s ever fucking seen.”

That was it. The compliment had gone completely over her head until later, after Coco chucked any sense of subtlety out the window, but Velvet was simply relieved. She was part of the team, and neither Fox nor Yatsuhashi seemed to be concerned with the fact that a Faunus was fighting beside them. When she was alone – be it on campus or Vale’s streets – that was when the barbs came out from others, mocking her ears, her blood, any rumor that could be ascribed to leporid heritage, but tongues fell silent when she was just an interlocking piece in the team. It made sense, though. They were really, really damn good.

All their roles fell out naturally, like it was just meant to be. Velvet had been scouting in the wild since she could walk, making traversing new territory second nature. In a fight, she was the hard kick to the spine no one expected, using Yatsuhashi’s height to keep herself hidden until the perfect moment to strike presented itself. He was an amazing partner too, patient and kind, protective in a way that Velvet never would have predicted, but it was proved without words, without any debt expected in turn.

Fox possessed a wicked wit and the skill in combat to match, but it was the fact that he could see her –  _really_  see her – that set him apart. For years, Velvet relied on her Semblance to keep her hidden in the times it was needed most, a last resort when the pressure of the world was too much and she simply needed to breathe in perfect safety and solitude. Yet the first time Fox had found her that way, invisible and afraid, he’d offered nothing but comfort. In no time, they could be vulnerable to each other without any fear at all.

When it came right down to it, Coco was the kind of leader everyone wanted, the sort who lead from the front but refused to leave until the rest of her team was off the field. Even when her orders sounded reckless, there was a keen strategy behind them, although Coco was always the first one to downplay the kind of intellect it took to adapt to a new fight every day. _It’s just guts and nerve, Velv. On top of a hard skull, I guess. I’m not going to complain if you like what you see though._

For all those reasons, flirting with Coco was easy too. Velvet couldn’t believe half the things that came out of her mouth when the other girl was around, swinging between wry and suggestive when inspiration struck. All of it was welcomed and came back with twice the implication until Velvet felt heat climbing up her face, and caught Yatsuhashi and Fox smiling at each other like they thought she couldn’t see. When the lines finally blurred between them, it felt like giving into the inevitable instead of discovering something new. The moment had just been there, waiting.

It was after she’d figured things out with Yatsuhashi but before Fox, when they agreed as a team that this was worth making it work. Velvet wasn’t sure how to fit ‘I have a girlfriend and two boyfriends’ into her letters back home, but at the time, it didn’t matter. Having her first birthday off Menagerie was already strange on its own – she was used to both of her parents waking her up with a special breakfast before they all went for a run, a mile per year like tradition asked for – but more so when she was stolen out of classes to open a pile of presents higher than she’d ever seen, and eat a cake that was one candle shy.

“You’re _nineteen_?” Coco asked, head tilting curiously. “How’s that work?”

“Well, when you get to eighteen, they usually let you keep going.” Fox chimed in.

Velvet batted at his shoulder, hearing Coco snort under her breath. “I got my acceptance at seventeen, same as anyone, but I had to apply for a visa to the mainland. The wait ended up being almost a year since they limit how many Faunus can leave the island at a time.”

Anger flickered behind dark lenses, sharp and defiant. “That’s bullshit.”

There was nothing to do but shrug; it had been the way of things as long as Velvet could remember.

“I should have known you were the oldest out of all of us.” Yatsuhashi said, black eyes brimming with silent mirth. “You act like it.”

The first couple gifts were practical: a set of extremely delicate Dust-forging tools from Yatsuhashi and a sophisticated scroll program from Fox that could be used to create 3D projections for the sake of weapon modification and design, but when Velvet asked what the remaining boxes were, both of them shrugged. Coco just smiled and told her that there was only one way to find out, which meant picking from the stack at random and unknotting the very complicated scarlet ribbon binding the present shut.

Inside was enough matching tissue paper to cover their dorm room walls, but underneath that was a gorgeous white blouse, so soft to the touch Velvet ran her fingers over the fabric a few times just for the sensation. When she finally picked it up, the brand tag came into view, a tiny square of silk stamped with a familiar symbol: a golden spinning wheel. Her eyes went wide and she almost dropped the blouse, whirling around to face Coco, who was now hiding that smile behind one glove, even if it wasn’t quite enough to obscure the very edges of her grin.

“This is a luxury brand,” Velvet said, not believing the words even as they came out of her mouth, “you bought this for  _me_?”

“Do you like it?” Excitement spilled over Coco’s voice before she reigned it in, clearing her throat. “Alright, that’s not fair to ask before you’ve tried it on.”

“But what’s in the rest of the boxes if this is–”  _Practically worth its weight in pure Dust._  Just thinking it made Velvet fear she might get a stain on the blouse somewhere.

“We’re gonna be here all night if you don’t open ‘em.” Fox teased, looking all too pleased from where he lounged on the bed. “I only heard you pop one ribbon.”

With extreme care, Velvet folded the sleeves back as they were before so the blouse would fit cleanly into the box again, and took a deep breath before picking up the next gift. It unwrapped just the same, but this time it was a metallic leather belt, embossed with a fascinating, complicated design and held together by an interlocking gold buckle that had been polished to a shine. This time the brand was stamped on the inside of the leather itself, and one Velvet didn’t recognize, but just from holding it, the quality was incomparable.

“Are all of these clothes?” She sputtered, realizing there were at least a dozen more boxes to open. “Coco, this is too much.”

The comment was dismissed with a wave of the other girl’s hand. “I could have put in all in one big one, but I’m pretty sure it’s scientifically proven that people like opening more presents, even if it all ends up being the same stuff.”

“But how much did everything cost?” Velvet asked, setting the belt back down like it was made of glass.

“Good question.” After a moment of consideration, Coco gave up with a hum. “I have an account with the store, it all goes on that.”

Yatsuhashi placed a hand on Velvet’s shoulder, drawing her attention. “She’s not kidding. I came with her to carry the bags and they…never gave us a total.”

It was hard to decide if that was more comforting or less; she was floored either way. “But why? I mean, I haven’t–”

“Don’t say you don’t deserve it.” Fox interrupted. “‘Cause you do.”

Before there was a chance to argue that, Coco added: “And I saw the luggage you came here with, Velv. Everything you wear takes up like three inches of space in the closet. ”

“I could only bring a single bag through customs.” Velvet admitted quietly, embarrassed even though not a one of them seemed to care.

“I know.” A reflexive push of the sunglasses back up the bridge of her nose obscured the subtle drop in Coco’s expression. “I figured out that much, even if I didn’t put two and two together on the visa thing. So I wanted to fix it.”

For a moment, Velvet was on the edge of tears, but drew the feeling back with a hard swallow, not wanting any of them to get the wrong impression. She started to open the rest of the gifts, tossing a balled-up wad of tissue paper at Yatsuhashi when he joked the the stack of empty presents was getting taller than she was. He took the hit to the forehead with a tranquil smile, but reached out to catch the ball before it bounced to the floor. With another toss, it was in the garbage, and Velvet was thoroughly distracted by the skirt in the final box, letting out a soft oh at the warm cognac color it was dyed. Every inch was gorgeous.

“There’s one caveat here.” Coco said, and Velvet jumped, not expecting to feel the other girl’s breath hot against her ear. “I did eyeball your size since I didn’t want to spoil the surprise. So I need to have you try everything on to make sure none of it’s got to be exchanged, okay?”

The mattress creaked as Fox sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. “And that is my cue to go smoke a bowl up on the roof.”

“If you’re going to that much trouble, I’ll come with you.” Yatsuhashi said, getting to his feet and turning from side to side in a slow stretch. “Is everything in the drawer, Coco?”

“Same as always. Enjoy, boys.”

Velvet blinked, failing to stifle her confusion. “But you two don’t have to–”

“We’re not going to make you hide in the closet for the next three hours while Coco has you try out every possible combination of those clothes.” Fox turned her way, eyes glowing for a split second before he winked. “Just because Yatsu checks you out in the locker room doesn’t mean you have to give him a show here.”

A blush rushed up Yatsuhashi’s face, settling in a deep red on the apples of his cheeks. “Fox!”

“Your tone totally implies I’m right, just saying.” With a triumphant grin, Fox strolled out of the room, leaving Yatsuhashi to grab their supplies out of the drawer.

Before he left  – everything tucked in his farthest back pouch and out of view – Yatsuhashi stopped to place a kiss on the top of Velvet’s head and whispered, “Anything you two do is okay, alright? I know we talked about it before, but it’s still true.”

Now she was the one blushing; the pieces fell together in one quick jumble. “Okay.”

The door locked by itself when Yatsuhashi showed himself out, and Coco gathered up the clothes in her arms, arranging them with a care Velvet wasn’t used to seeing unless she was polishing her gatling gun. “So, you’re the woman of the hour. Where do you want to start?”

A hundred answers for that question jumped right to Velvet’s tongue, but she held back for once. “How many outfits does that make, anyway?”

“As many as you want.” Coco shrugged, then held out both arms like a ten-thousand-Lien clothes rack. “Technically, I picked out three, but it’s not on me to cramp your style.”

Finding the catch on her combat uniform, Velvet drew the tab downward in one smooth motion, stripping off her jacket before moving to the belt and boots. Disrobing in front of Coco was second nature, seeing as they usually had a collective forty seconds to change whenever Goodwitch called for an outdoor drill, but even with every chance to leer, Velvet was pretty sure Coco’s eyes stayed averted behind her glasses until she was down to her underwear and took a step forward, holding out a hand for the skirt on top.

“Liked that one, huh?” The zipper slid up the side of her thigh, quiet as a whisper, and Velvet let out a sound of approval. “I thought you would. Wanted to make it match your palette and all that.”

Glancing up at the mirror hanging on the closet door next to Coco, it was hard not to be impressed how well the skirt fit. “Exactly how much planning did you put into this?”

“Hey, I take fashion very seriously. It’s part of the family business.” All the exaggerated eye-rolling in the world couldn’t hide the way Coco’s chest had just puffed up a bit.

“I don’t think that’s the only reason you take it seriously.” Velvet quipped, drawing the blouse up over her head and back down. It took a tug or two to straighten the hem, but she liked the loose drape of the sleeves, not to mention just how comfortable everything was.

No wonder Coco could be so laid-back, if all the clothes she wore felt like floating on a cloud.

After a full swivel in front of the mirror, taking in how it looked from back to hips, Velvet glanced over her shoulder to ask, “So, which accessory goes with this?”

“I’ll show you. One second.” Fabric rustled when Coco set the rest of the clothes aside, followed by a jingle of metal links. Velvet closed her eyes as the necklace was draped around her throat, trying not to shiver with the trail of gloved fingertips up the back of her neck, clasp coming together after a quiet little click. “Okay, take a look.”

She did, and the sight of the heavy golden heart settled just past the collar of the blouse, etched with the stitches of her symbol, made Velvet’s throat tight. Without question, the jewelry was custom, and it was strange to see herself as a girl dressed up for a weekend out – not a huntress, not a scout, always practical. “No one’s ever done something like this for me before. I mean, my parents bought me clothes when I needed them, but it’s easier to keep up the mending than have a lot extra, you know?”

Coco’s hands moved to Velvet’s shoulders, black leather sharp against the cream linen of her blouse in the mirror. “It’s my job to take care of the team. Who says I can’t spoil you a little, right?”

Except this was above and beyond. “Coco–”

“It’s not a big deal. I didn’t even think about the money – I don’t  _have_  to – but I know some people do, and I just wanted you to have something nice.” There was a pause, a fumbled curse Velvet felt in a warm breath against her hair. “Not that you’re not already nice. Besides, Fox and Yatsu are getting the same treatment too. They just don’t know it yet.”

“You should put Yatsuhashi in one of those athletic cut-shirts.” Velvet mused, shoulders relaxing under the subtle drum of Coco’s fingertips. “Show off his shoulders more.”

Flirtatious heat wound its way through Coco’s low laugh. “He’s got a nice set, doesn’t he? I want to know what his village puts in the water.”

“Me too.” Turning just enough to see her eye-to-eye instead of the reflection, Velvet smiled. “Something about partners, huh?”

“Kind of how it falls out.” Coco smiled back, but it was tight along the edges, smaller. “I mean, not always, but a lot.”

Here went nothing. “And we could be partners too, if you wanted.”

“That…is the cheesiest line I’ve ever heard in my life.” Yet her smile grew, head tilting forward until their brows almost touched. “Works for you, though.”

“Does it?” Velvet asked softly, face angled until their lips were just an inch apart.

The answer was Coco’s hand cupping her cheek, a mix of leather and bare skin. “Fox also told me helping the birthday girl get lucky sounded like something out of a porn mag, but who gives a damn.”

“Yatsuhashi said anything we do is okay.” A wealth of possibility, if there ever was one. “If that’s okay with you too.”

“Yeah. Nothing short of fucking perfect.”

The few times Velvet had thought about them kissing, it was something quick and hard, stolen after a fight when the adrenaline spilled over. This was different, gentle, even when Coco took the lead and drew her close. Then the hand still resting on Velvet’s shoulder slid to the middle of her back, a subtle pressure bringing their bodies flush together, and she slid her arms around Coco’s hips, holding tight until they both broke apart to breathe, hindered when she found herself starting to laugh, joined by Coco a second later.

“That definitely worked.” She was tingling from head to toe, even if the angle was a slight strain on her neck. “So what’s next?”

“We get these nice new clothes off you before I ruin them.” The promise in Coco’s voice made Velvet bite her lip, made all the better when the pendant hanging from her necklace was taken in hand, thumb idly caressing the stitches in the heart.  “But you can leave this on if you want.”

Only Coco’s ability to hang things in a closet as fast as she swapped magazines kept the outfit from being thrown over the nearby chair and abandoned, but Velvet found herself distracted entirely by the mattress pressing in against the back of her thighs and finding the slipknot behind the black rose where Coco’s scarf came loose. That ended up on the bed next to them before she was on it too, letting Coco explore with her hands at will as they kissed and kissed again. Velvet let out a pleased hum when her bra came off with a single pull of the clasp – Yatsuhashi had a hard time with it, owing to the size of his fingers – and rolled her shoulders to ease the straps down, all while keeping her fingers focused on working open Coco’s ammo belt.

“I’m not going too fast, am I?” The question was branded on the curve of her throat by Coco’s lips and teeth, grazing her pulse right near the chain of the pendant. “Feels like it’s been a long time coming, no pun intended.”

Velvet let out another soft laugh as she undid the strap on Coco’s cincher, tugging it from around her waist. “Well, you haven’t told me what you like yet.”

“I’m kind of a top, if you haven’t picked up on that.” There was a smile against her skin before Coco nipped at the juncture of her shoulder. “And usually I stay more dressed than this.”

Stilling her hands, Velvet waited until dark eyes angled up, one brow arched and expected. “Do you want me to stop?”

“It’s not a power trip, I just get overloaded on touch sometimes. Semblance runoff or something.” Propping herself up with one arm, Coco reached up to her beret and took it off, deliberately setting the hat on top of the cincher. “But I want to feel you all the way, okay? At ease, soldier.”

The comment was worth a roll of her eyes, but Velvet felt the sincerity bleeding through, enough to put confidence back in her touch. “If you’re not going to power trip, you can’t say things like that.”

“Yeah?” Coco smiled, stealing a sloppy kiss before her mouth moved lower again and pulled a surprised moan from Velvet’s lips. “What _can_  I say, then?”

“How about telling me where the actual zipper on your pants is?” She murmured.

It was found a second later regardless, and somehow in the tangle of limbs managed to get the the trousers all the way down to Coco’s knees. The buckles on her boots were simple enough, and everything slid down to the floor with a firm yank downward. Watching Coco peel both gloves off with her teeth was a particular treat, but they were tossed aside just the same, joining the pile with Coco’s shirt. Velvet cupped Coco’s breasts through her bra, stifling a smile at the tight, thick weave covering warm skin: bulletproof, of course, and conveniently unhooked in the front.

For all the times she’d seen Coco out of uniform, none of it compared to being able to look and touch at will, the full picture instead of fumbled glimpses out of the corner of her eye. Corded muscle flared like thick cable from Coco’s forearms, triceps and shoulders sculpted and hard as metal, with a scar cutting down over her collarbone. All of them had wear and tear from training, from accidents with Dust in the forge, but Velvet wanted to memorize all the marks and grooves just the same, pressing a kiss to that rough dividing line where skin joined skin. Coco’s answering growl inspired Velvet to trace her tongue beneath the scar, right where nerve found feeling again.

“Get up higher,” Coco said, caught between the steel of an order and a hungry request, “by the headboard.”

Easier said than done when Coco was practically on top of her, but Velvet managed with a hard push against the mattress, pulled into a deep kiss the second her head hit the pillows. Occupied by tongue and teeth, Velvet explored everywhere else with the slow draw of fingertips along Coco’s ribs, the column of strength between her shoulder blades, and learned that when nails scraped down the small of her back, Coco would groan low in her throat. She liked the sound enough to bring it out a few more times, then hooked her fingers in the band of Coco’s underwear to tug them down and out of the way.

“Getting somewhere fast, Velv?” It was murmured against her mouth as Coco’s knees bent enough to kick the underwear to the end of the bed, but before Velvet had a chance to answer, both her wrists were grabbed and pinned to the pillows, held there by a firm squeeze. “Gonna end up distracting me.”

For curiosity’s sake, she strained against Coco’s grip, which went slack the moment her struggle was noted. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“Not bad. I just got a few other priorities right now.” A pair of fingers traced down Velvet’s jaw, following the line of her chin and stopping just shy of her lips. “Want to get these wet for me?”

She complied with a soft moan, taking Coco’s fingers into her mouth and teasing her tongue between them. Surprise played across Coco’s face before it was tamped back down, forcing Velvet to swallow a laugh to keep from gagging; if that had been a test, she’d passed it with flying colors. When Coco withdrew her fingers, her thumb swiped the hint of wetness from Velvet’s lower lip with casual affection, leaning down for a gentle kiss that lingered for a few breaths, and Velvet’s eyes fluttered shut, quietly amazed that the two of them had managed to stay apart so long in the first place.

The bed creaked as Coco sat up and straddled her thigh, slick heat spreading across Velvet’s skin when her weight pressed down again. A moan stuttered out of Velvet’s throat from sheer surprise, the scent of such blatant arousal almost as strong as the sensation. Coco laid a trail of kisses down her neck, tasted the hollow of her collarbone before nipping at the softer flesh beneath, and wrote a cool line from sternum to hip, slow enough to make Velvet squirm. Her hips jerked when knuckles brushed the sepia-dark curls between her thighs, too light to be anything more than a tease, and Coco’s answering hum was heady with satisfaction.

“Can I put my arms around your shoulders?” Velvet asked, flexing her fingers to kill the pent-up energy. It wasn’t nerves, per se, but not being able to touch Coco when she was  _right there_  happened to be nothing short of unfair.

“Mm, I’m good with that.” Kisses were scattered across Velvet’s breasts, chasing the pink flush rising from her skin, and Coco’s fingers drifted by centimeters, cupping right where she ached. “Want me to start out slow?”

“No,” Velvet gasped it before any other thought could form, “I really don’t.”

Her arms wrapped tight around Coco as she teased her open with precise strokes, waiting until her hips were taut and trembling before both fingers thrust inside. Velvet gasped, nails biting deep into Coco’s shoulders as the initial stretch eased, leaving a warm and full feeling in its place, heightened the second she rocked into it, and Coco’s hips moved right back, riding her thigh with an eager rhythm. When they kissed again, it was a messy, quick clash, but Velvet found no cause to complain, biting at Coco’s lip until her fingers pumped faster, some of the strength written deep in those hands spilling into the movement.

“If this is–” A whimper popped from between Velvet’s teeth, messing up the words, “–is what you do for my birthday–what do I do for yours?”

“Oh, I’ve got a couple ideas.” Coco smirked, eyes dark with desire. “There’s a shop downtown the two of us should get acquainted with sometime.”

Without thinking, Velvet tightened around Coco’s fingers, stifling a moan into their next kiss. At the end of each thrust, Coco moved them just so, pressing against a spot that sent sparks across Velvet’s vision, made twice as intense when the warm curve of Coco’s palm was resting against her clit and providing constant pressure, the exact friction she needed. Velvet felt a cry building in her throat, pushed higher every time Coco thrust to the knuckle, and it finally escaped when a third finger was added. She was more than wet enough to take it, but the sudden shift forced the tension winding through her to peak, balanced right on the edge of needing more and almost too much.

When Velvet came, it was a single huge wave of pleasure, drawing her under before she could do more than claw at Coco’s back and moan her name. All that power tightly contained in muscle and sinew bore down on her, held her close through every whimper, the needy twist and jerk of her hips taking every last drop of bliss there was to have until Velvet relaxed back against the pillows with a deep sigh. Her heart was threatening to jump out of her chest, every solid beat sending a warm buzz through the rest of her body, only for Velvet to feel her pulse skip when Coco’s fingers withdrew, slow and deliberate.

It was a testament to Coco’s control, considering she could make out dilated pupils and the restrained edge to her movements, like steel wires were running under her skin. Velvet spared a glance downward, just long enough to see the arousal spread across her thigh, smeared from that knee to the joint of her hip thanks to the constant roll of Coco’s hips, and had only one question at hand – once she’d stopped panting for breath.

“Are you close?” Velvet asked.

Coco’s hard shiver was answer enough. “I’m getting there.”

“Can I watch you?” Her best efforts couldn’t keep a blush from rising up, but she thought the question was worth the trouble. “I mean, I–I’ve…thought about it before.”

“Yeah?” Curiosity and pride infused that single word; as if Coco’s ego needed the boost. “Well, who am I to say no to that?”

Bringing up her hips so she was completely on all fours, Coco balanced with one arm against the pillows, the other going right between her legs. Velvet’s view wasn’t perfect by any means, but as soon as Coco’s fingers started stroking her own clit, came back glistening with clear, wet heat, she stopped caring. Just the sounds were enough to make her shiver, much less the way Coco bucked fiercely into her hand, exactly as demanding when it came to herself, but it was the fact that Coco hadn’t looked away that made the perfect picture, demanding attention Velvet was all too happy to give.

Whether it was from being watched or already being caught right on the edge, it took no time at all for Coco to come. Velvet saw the tension snap when her back arched, other hand gripping the sheets so tight it looked like they were going to tear, and a breathless curse broke through Coco’s exertion. Pleasure slackened her jaw, vulnerability shining in dark eyes as she rode out every last wave of her orgasm, a rough-edged gasp ending on a laugh when Coco’s hand finally relaxed. Velvet blinked, realizing she hadn’t moved a muscle the entire time, too caught up memorizing every detail.

“I’m guessing you enjoyed that.” Coco said, sitting back on her knees.

That was an understatement if there ever was one. Velvet sat up and tugged Coco back against her, but rather than staying on her back, she hooked one leg around Coco’s knee to flip their positions in a single solid twist. Still flush with afterglow, Coco took a moment to even react, but when she did, it was only to laugh again, stretching out her legs as an obvious tremble went up each one. Content that there would be no counter – at least, for now – Velvet started to show her appreciation another way, starting with her lips at the base of Coco’s throat and working down to the soft swell of both breasts, the divot below her sternum.

“I’m ready for round two if you are.” Velvet said, then kissed the scar set deep in Coco’s hip.

Folding her arms back behind her head, Coco was the picture of indulgence; lucky for her, it was cute. “You bet, babe. How many are we going for?”

“Until I wear you out.”

“Until you wear me–” The humor drained away from Coco’s voice, replaced by a gulp. “–there’s a good chance of that, huh?”

Now it was Velvet’s turn to smirk, hands framing full hips. “Oh, just wait and see.”


	2. Velvet/Fox

Velvet adored the sounds Fox made.

He was most talkative around Coco, and shared some stoic bond with Yatsuhashi that was beyond her ken, but when they were together it became simple noises and expression, syllables exchanged between touches. Sometimes it was holding hands under the lunch table or showering together; other times it was like this, naked and tangled in the sheets of Coco’s giant bed. Intimacy could be hard to come by, and privacy even more so when there was only so much space and time to spare in the dorm on any given day.

Two calloused fingers were hooked in the harness binding her hips, allowing Fox to guide a comfortable pace while his other hand wandered, feeling the warm base of her ears or stroking her hair, which he insisted felt like a curtain of silk. Muscle flexed up Velvet’s thighs as she pushed the toy to its hilt again, watching the gasp form in Fox’s scarred mouth. The sound was short and sweet, made even sweeter when his calves tensed against her shoulders, all ten toes curling.

Turning her head to kiss another scar along one dark knuckle, Velvet murmured, “Love you, Fox.”

“Love you too, Velv.” He let out a breathless laugh when she nipped his fingertip. “How much longer do you think they’ll be in the library?”

“As long as it takes for Coco to memorize Yatsu’s history notes.” Not to mention enjoying some time of their own together. The balance could be tricky at times between the four of them, especially when partner pairs had to take preference in class. “Another hour, maybe?”

Enough time for a break after this, and maybe a second round too, if he was in the mood for it. “Sounds about right.”

Fox rocked himself into the rhythm of her hips and they both moaned, Velvet’s hands grasping hard at the pillow behind his head. The fingers laced with the harness pulled away, and she watched as they delved between his thighs and worked in tight, quick circles, giving the opportunity to lean down and steal a kiss when he bucked underneath her. Swallowing down grunts and hitched breaths, Fox’s broken curses, Velvet’s lips brushed over his brow and eyelids tensed shut, steeling her weight on both knees to keep steady on the bed. The difference between them wasn’t as sizeable as the one between her and Yatsuhashi, but Fox was still half a foot taller and his frame packed with muscle.

He came with a shout, heels pressed at a crossed angle against her back. Every thrust drew out another sigh, another low whimper of her name, and Velvet smiled when Fox’s fingers came searching for her expression, framing cheek and jaw to read her excitement in turn. Relaxing against the broad frame of his body as soon as he stopped shivering, breasts to chest, a subtle ache started to assert itself in the small of her back. There was a reason she was usually on the other end of this sort of thing – Coco’s jokes about her being a ‘pillow princess’ aside – but it was well worth the cost to see bliss spreading across Fox’s face in the afterglow.

“It’s your turn to change the sheets.” Velvet teased, weaving a few strands of red hair through splayed fingers.

Fox’s arm fell across his face as he huffed, breath still ragged and uneven. “Second shelf on the closet, yeah?”

“Left side.” His legs slowly relaxed from their position on her shoulders, laying flat against the bed after a long stretch. “Not now, though.”

Both of his arms wrapped around her, locking their bodies together while he kissed her collarbone, brought his mouth to freckles Coco had described to him once like constellations. “No, not now.”


	3. Coco/Fox

****“– _Semblance development is documented in both humans and Faunus as early as five years of age, but most do not see prominent displays until_ –”

“Hey, Fox.”

A weight settled on the bed next to him, followed by the sound of something tossed to the end of the mattress. Probably her beret. Even without the warning, Fox couldn’t mistake Coco for anyone else. Every hunter carried a layer of Dust and sweat on them at the end of the day, but she was always a mix of gun oil and sweet perfume over a base of supple, expensive leather. By habit, she lay on her left side, and the soft click of titanium was the temples of her sunglasses folding together, set somewhere out of the way. His mouth twitched into a frown; Coco rarely took them off, even to sleep.

Hitting pause on the scroll, Fox tugged out his earbuds and listened for the headphone cord zipping into its protective plastic coil. The screen collapsed into a smaller shape, tucked into a back pocket and buttoned shut. Coco let out a groan, muttering something through grit teeth, and he reached out, fingers skirting over the sheets until finding the smooth, familiar texture of her shirt. Shifting by inches, he pressed himself right up against her back, arm draping over one hip.

“Still having a hard time, huh?” Fox asked.

There was a pause, a sigh, but Coco’s resolve broke in seconds. “Shit, it’s _awful_. Never let me make a bet with Velvet again. She hits right in the sweet spot.”

“It’s only two more days.” He murmured, drawing idle circles over her stomach.

“Two more days before I go and smoke an entire pack, so is that any better than just doing it now?” Muscle flexed up her arm, the tell-tale clench of a fist. “Fuck, I’ve been thinking about it all day. Is nicotine gum cheating?”

Fox felt a smile tugging on the edge of his mouth. “It’s definitely cheating.”

“I’m going to crack. I almost bought a couple cigarettes off that freshman team that’s been hanging around. Their big guy – Sage or something – he had some really nice hand-rolled ones.” Coco huffed, low and frustrated.

“You’re not going to crack.” His hand started to wander, catching on the heavy round buckle of her belt. “The first day we met, you told me ‘I don’t lose’. And when we became partners, you said ‘we don’t lose’. So I’m definitely not letting you bust my reputation too.”

The catch of the belt opened and Fox went to the button underneath, drawing his thumb right along the line where Coco’s shirt ended and her trousers started.

“Hey.“ The single syllable hitched. “What are we getting up to?”

This time he did smile, and kissed the back of her ear. “Distracting you.”

“Oh, I love it when you speak my language, partner.”

Coco turned and met Fox’s mouth with a hard kiss, her hand slipping back to grope him. One of her worst – and best – qualities was switching gears with a second’s notice, just as energetic as the first go. He grunted, returning the kiss but grabbing her wrist and giving it a light pull. Gloved fingers went slack, abandoning their attempt to unzip his fly.

“Uh-uh. This is about you, not me.” Fox said. “Lose the pants.”

Metal studs and the contents of Coco’s pockets jangled together when she did what he asked, and Fox shifted onto his back, tucking a pillow right under his neck. It was only a few seconds later when damp fabric hit him right in the face, and feeling for the lacy edge of the panties, he chucked them a few feet above where the sound of heels scraping the floor was coming from, earning a brief curse of indignation from Coco, followed by a laugh when she straddled his hips, bare thighs pressing in from either side.

“Didn’t want to keep the trophy?” They kissed again, her fingers seizing the zipper hidden behind the center seam of his shirt and yanking it down. “I’m hurt.”

Fox smiled against Coco’s lips, shrugging out of the shirt and settling his hands on the curve of her ass. A firm squeeze earned a moan, tight muscle jumping under his fingertips. “I’d rather drink straight from the source.”

“Sweet talker.” She traced his scars, getting lost in the jagged patterns for a moment before letting out a rough breath, weight rising up.

Another quiet huff followed as Coco situated herself, knees a hard pressure above Fox’s shoulders and sinking into the pillow. As soon as he shifted his grip, she moved down to meet his mouth, slick folds parting against his lips and the first long stroke of his tongue. Coco stifled a groan and Fox heard the headboard creak, the leather of her gloves sticking to lacquered wood with a hard grip.

He hummed, tracing a path to the swell of her clit and back, never lingering long enough for it to be anything but a tease. Even on bad days Coco didn’t need much of a warm-up, but every moment he drew this out was another chance to hear her moan and curse, building in volume and pitch. A tight jerk of her hips smeared arousal down to his chin, and Fox stifled a smirk.

“Get in me.” Coco gasped, more of a plea than an order.

“So impatient.” He chided, just for the sake of feeling her thighs tighten around around his head.

Fox drew a slow circle around Coco’s entrance before his tongue darted inside for just a split second. A murmur of relief twisted into a frustrated hiss, the column of her back rigid as his hands stroked upward from the curve of her ass. He knew Coco was fighting the urge to grab his hair and tug – that might have worked on Velvet or Yatsuhashi, but for him it was just an excuse to take even longer. Coco wouldn’t forget what was on her mind if he sated that first instinctive need to come and go, as it were.

A telltale tremble through her thighs prompted a little mercy, and Fox thrust his tongue as deep as he could, working up to a quick, slick rhythm that had Coco grinding down, stealing any bit of friction she could. When his nose bumped against her clit, there was a choked cry, followed by Coco’s warm and husky laugh. The low, pleased rumble made Fox’s hips jerk in turn; he couldn’t memorize every noise she made, but he could try.

“Your mouth’s fucking incredible, Fox.” She sighed, the sound lingering and languid.

There was no question she’d been distracted now, and he turned all his attention to making her come. One hand slipped down to spread her folds open to the broad swipe of his tongue, right before Fox took Coco’s clit between his lips and sucked. The sudden pressure, followed by a fluttering rhythm of strokes beneath the hood earned a drawn-out moan, holding Coco right on the brink of release as she shuddered with need.

“Fuck, I’m– _there_ –”

Fox tightened his hold on her hips the second before she let go, letting Coco ride the flat of his tongue until she couldn’t take anymore, weight briefly bearing down on his chest as she fought to recover. Ragged breaths settled back to an even beat and the beads of her necklace clicked together as she climbed down Fox’s body, claiming his mouth in a messy kiss.

“What was I complaining about again?” She asked.

“No idea.” He replied, grin wide.

“Hold still, partner, you’ve got something on your face.” Coco swiped her thumb across his chin, and Fox heard her suck it clean. “Sure you don’t want me to return the favor?”

“Mm, I want to finish my book.” They kissed again before Coco rolled over onto her side, head hitting the pillows with a dull thump. “You going to crash out?”

“Probably.” She yawned and Fox smiled, taking his scroll and headphones from his pocket again. “Wake me up when the others get here?”

“You got it, fearless leader.”

Her only answer was a snore. With a roll of his eyes, Fox put in his earbuds, and before settling back into the book, reached back over to ruffle Coco’s hair.


	4. Yatsuhashi/Fox

Being with Yatsuhashi was like learning a mountain.

It wasn’t a metaphor, not really. Fox remembered his mother molding things into his hands until he memorized the shape and texture, teaching him the words. He’d been born blind – the side effect of Dust runoff in groundwater drained from a quarry long condemned – and touch was first and foremost how he knew the world, until unlocking a Semblance gave him bright halos to define the living and Dust itself, splotches of soulless black bringing Grimm to reality. The rest was still empty space, however, and he had to fill in the lines with his own two hands.

Except he couldn’t hold a mountain in his palm, grip it tight and decide what it was and wasn’t. Something of that size had to be learned over time with hundreds of revolutions around its edges, descent and ascension until every inch of ground was covered. When Fox brushed his fingers over the acceptance letter to Beacon, felt the raised ink and heard the recorded welcome, it was a whole range of possibility and a new path to tread.

With Coco, it was simple. They were partners and Aura stretched between their bodies like a hundred little threads, braiding tighter every time they brushed against death and lived to tell the tale. She had propositioned him only a week into freshman year, the scent of her perfume just starting to be familiar. It was with a boisterous laugh; everything about her was heat and pressure, even when she wasn’t close enough to touch.

Fox heard Coco’s teeth click on the temple of her glasses, tapped there in thought, right before she said, “Shame not to break in the bed.”

There were other words too, but his pants were halfway around his ankles before Fox confessed it was the first time he’d ever done something like this and Coco’s building fervor leveled out, brow pressed against his as they exchanged hot breaths like bolts of lightning. She asked him again and again for what he wanted, let his hands wander freely until Fox knew she was right-handed from the slight swell of muscle in her forearm different from the left, memorized the puckered scar embedded in one hip –  _they teach you about friendly fire in school, partner?_ – and found her arousal waiting for his fingertips, no matter how untutored.

Velvet came after, small enough to fit inside his entire frame. Not a mountain, not by far, not when she pressed herself into the walls and stayed there, shy and waiting to flourish. Dust lay on her skin like wild magic, gun oil worked under nails cut short, and her footsteps were so light Coco joked about stringing bells around one ankle. Fox laughed when he found out Velvet’s Semblance was invisibility – Aura reflecting the world around her like camouflage – for there were times when he was the only one who could see her, and that was more than a novelty.

They kissed for the first time in spring when the Emerald Forest was drenched in rain around them, slender but strong fingers gripping the front of his vest. Two packs of Grimm had split the team apart, cleaving partner from partner and Fox had chased the first Aura he could sense until he was close enough to hear Velvet’s staggered breathing, find her concealed against a tree. The scent of iron was the only way he knew the slick stain down her arm was blood while they were caught in a storm, his body guarding hers until it healed.

The Grimm died in a hail of Coco’s gunfire, chased into the long edge of Yatsuhashi’s blade and Velvet pulled him closer. She asked  _can I_ and Fox had given a yes without being sure what she meant to do, but her mouth was a sudden spark in the rainfall. Soft balm instead of the lipstick usually wiped off his cheeks and throat, lingering long enough that he had to suck in a breath, and in that instant Velvet fled, gasping an apology. He and Coco weren’t _dating_ , just partners under more than one definition, but they were young then. It all felt new.

With Yatsuhashi, it was different.

Before Beacon, Fox had no scars. After he added two, made days past eighteen, Yatsuhashi was the one who sat with him, towels loosely wrapped around their hips after a long shower. They had touched before, quietly exploring every delineation of muscle, the similarities and differences, but it still felt like there was so much left to know. Hands rough as granite from the hilt of his sword, rounded marble shoulders that grew wider by the year with raised veins like rivers and tributaries, a hard and beautiful topography.

Some part of Fox had worried that knowing another man would bring a slow and cutting kind of pain, but there was never doubt, no contact where he didn’t ask for it. Yatsuhashi was gentle, yielding where he pushed while matching the desire that built blow for blow. After he found a package of condoms in his travel bag, Fox realized Coco had noticed where it was leading, and he accidentally overheard Velvet telling Yatsuhashi the same thing. They both gave their blessing in a different way.

Now it was a practiced rhythm. Where Fox’s hands once wavered, they moved with purpose, fingers sliding against a buzzed scalp, gripping what hair remained; the other kept Yatsuhashi’s shoulders pressed down, using the leverage to rock into his body. Face-deep into the pillows, Yatsuhashi’s groans were muffled, and narrow straps tightened around Fox’s hips every time he thrust, keeping slow and steady. His palms were slick between lubrication and sweat, leaving the taste of salt behind whenever he kissed along another inch of skin.

He didn’t know everything, no, but he knew Yatsuhashi’s hips would jerk when his teeth grazed the notch between both shoulder blades, that keeping his knees pressed against the inside of both heavy, sculpted thighs meant he could feel whenever they trembled, the tell-tale sign that the man beneath him was right on the edge. In winter, cold always threatened to seep through the walls of the tallest tower, but every point of contact painted heat across their bodies, blossomed where they were connected.

“Fox.” Yatsuhashi let out a sharp gasp, then clenched his teeth. “Almost there.”

“I know, Yatsu.” Fox whispered, hid the words into the lines where his neck met shoulder.

Now he felt like steel instead of stone, right in the prime of the forge, bending and hot. The mattress creaked as Yatsuhashi’s elbows dug into it, pushed over the edge with another firm thrust. Fox let the hand gripping his shoulder fall, felt the come that dripped along Yatsuhashi’s abs start to stain the sheets as his back arched. Withdrawing to the last inch, the head of his cock just inside, Fox eased forward again as slow as he could until Yatsuhashi was spent and filled all at once.

They panted for a long moment, bodies tangled together. Sometimes it felt like he could sink even deeper, lose himself in bone and sinew and a thousand other things he couldn’t see. It was all feeling, an internal map constantly corrected and rewritten.

“You want me to pull out?” Fox asked.

“Mm.” A ponderous moment passed until Yatsuhashi turned his head, pressed a kiss against Fox’s palm. “Why don’t we stay like this for a little while?”

That was new, another thing to note and commit to memory. Fox smiled, resting his cheek against the broad plane of Yatsuhashi’s back until the adrenaline faded. After all, mountain climbing was exhausting.

 


	5. Velvet/Yatsuhashi

Velvet had chosen him.

Yatsuhashi came to terms with that truth halfway through freshman year, when they were practicing Aura exchange in class. Goodwitch was keeping a close eye on all of them, making sure no one was on the verge of overloading or passing out, both distinct possibilities. It was a simple process in theory – partners faced each other and pressed their hands together, left to right and right to left – allowing the flow of energy to move in a single loop. Plenty of hunters had volatile Semblances, meaning control was at a premium this early on.

“If you’re not in sync with your partner,” Goodwitch noted, crop swishing back-and-forth in her grip like a panther’s tail, “this can be like forcing two magnets together. It will feel unfamiliar, but that is the point. You must establish a connection that lasts even outside of battle. In time, you will know your entire team like you know yourself.”

“I think I know Fox pretty well,” Coco muttered under her breath, and Yatsuhashi watched his face flush a few shades darker.

“I think she does too.” Velvet whispered a moment later, low enough that only he could hear.

Yatsuhashi bent his knees, leaning down a bit more; her shoulders had to be hurting by now, holding up both arms to meet his hands like this. “Why do you say that?”

“Fox’s head tilts her way whenever she talks. He’ll turn to listen if he has to for other people, but most of the time he just keeps still.” A spark jumped from the center of his palm to hers, and Yatsuhashi saw the chestnut-colored fur on the back of Velvet’s ears rise up from the static. “Coco’s started describing where everything is when she talks to him too, and I don’t think she knows it. They look out for each other.”

Velvet’s eye for detail frankly astonished him. More than once, Yatsuhashi found her down in the smithing rooms, counting Dust down to the grain to try and balance out a new combination or mechanism. That was saying nothing of her weapon, which was devastating enough to wipe out a Grimm nest if properly put into action. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Velvet was just as particular when it came to other people, but the fact that she telling him about it so openly was new.

They hadn’t talked to each other very much in the first few weeks. He had taken three years of Vale’s tongue back home in Vacuo, but using it still sometimes made him feel like he was trying to talk through a mouthful of rocks. In his village, everyone’s speech was smooth and quick, without biting off harsh sounds at the end of every word. Velvet had an accent too, a lilt completely unfamiliar to his ear until he saw the customs stamps on her luggage from Menagerie, but her speech was measured next to Coco’s bullet-quick syllables and slang, or Fox’s near-monotone that sometimes left it difficult to gauge his mood.

At first, he had thought it was because of his size. Even with knees pressed together and shoulders hunched in, he had taken up most of a bench to himself since making it to fourteen, growing taller and broader by the year. Out of their entire team, Velvet was the smallest by far, and Yatsuhashi did everything he could to keep from looming over her or blocking her way. The strange thing was, whenever he stepped to the side, Velvet stepped with him, taking no issue even if she was completely concealed in his shadow.

Then he had started making sense of the things people hissed behind her back.

 _Freak. Grimm bait._  Questions about everything from her ears to her sex drive, framed as jokes or simple curiosity if a teacher suddenly appeared. Yatsuhashi had only known one Faunus family at home, and the Aka were some of the best blacksmiths to be found in the mountains. That skill had nothing to do with their antlers, only generations of hard work, and it wasn’t until going to school in the capital that Faunus history was even taught, that he knew how much they must have survived. Vacuo was liberal by human standards, or so it was said, but to hear people in Vale insulting Velvet to her face was an outrage.

“Do you want me to tell them to stop?” Yatsuhashi asked one morning, unsure of what else to say. She was so quiet, and he rarely saw the point in talking without something of import at hand.

“They won’t.” Velvet said with a faint smile, looking up to be sure she met his eyes. “But you’re sweet to ask.”

“It’s for no reason. You haven’t done anything!” His voice rose without any intention to, hard and booming, but before he could apologize, Yatsuhashi realized she hadn’t even winced.

“There’s a reason why the word ‘scapegoat’ is what it is.” The laugh that followed was short, bitter. “I knew I was going to be a target when I came to school here.”

“Why did you, then?” Yatsuhashi cursed the question as soon as it came out of his mouth, realizing how rude it must have sounded. “Why put yourself through this, I mean.”

“My parents didn’t want me to. They thought I’d get shot by a cop before I ever got a hunting license. But they were born in Menagerie, the first generation to never see the mainland.” Velvet toyed with the broad strap of her weapon, nails leaving punctures in the leather. “When you’re raised on war stories, it changes your perspective, I guess. It scared them, but it made me want to be a huntress. I always have.”

Bit by bit, the knot in his throat eased away. “My parents didn’t want me to either.”

Surprise pressed a thin line between her eyebrows. “Why?”

“Because they think I’ll end up killed.” Yatsuhashi shrugged. “My family has always been traders instead of warriors, even when we were only wanderers in the mountains. Not that I mean to say it’s the same–”

“It’s not, but…” Velvet’s smile widened, genuine this time. “I thought you’d understand.”

He blinked. “You did?”

“Just a gut feeling.” Her knuckles brushed right below his ribs, angling up towards his heart. “I’m sorry, I never meant to hide from you too.”

After that, things settled. Velvet asked about the books he brought with him, professing she couldn’t read a word in that script, and Yatsuhashi had given her an impromptu lesson on some of the simplest characters. Her fingers held the ink pen with ease, even if she struggled to imitate the sounds that matched each one. They would practice on the sidelines while watching Coco and Fox spar sometimes too, trading off between rounds.

Except now, he had no idea what to feel. The entire team slept in one bed thanks to a mix-up with Coco’s family and the moving service they hired, and on more than one morning, he had woken up with Velvet tucked into the curve of his arm, each breath a gentle huff of warmth over his skin. If he shifted too much, she would turn back around in her sleep, ending up on Coco’s portion of the pillows. When Velvet was pressed against him, the world seemed more solid, unbreakable. Yatsuhashi was used to holding back his strength from everything he touched.

“Yatsu.” Her tone was soft, but steady enough to snap him back to the here and now. “You need to channel the energy back.”

There was a brief shock when he flexed his fingers and only saw a faint shimmer along the air instead of his own skin. The spillover of Velvet’s Semblance vanished in an instant when Yatsuhashi breathed out, Aura pulled back into her body with a momentary white glow.

“Mr. Daichi,” Goodwitch warned from the front of the room, “please focus on your partner.”

“Sorry, professor.” He said, almost under his breath.

“Is everything okay?” Velvet asked, lacing her fingers back between his. Both of her fists would fit into one palm without even trying. “You looked like you were somewhere else.”

“I was just thinking about what you said,” Yatsuhashi paused, then amended, “about Fox and Coco.”

“They’re sweet together.” When his Aura flowed back to Velvet’s hands, he felt her arms stiffen. For a second she was immovable, a weight the world could do nothing to. “And loud enough to be heard through the door of our dorm.”

That much was true. “I’m just grateful they change the sheets every time.”

Now there were a hundred sparks dancing under his skin, ready to reflect like a mirror. Heat flared through Yatsuhashi’s palms as the connection deepened, Aura moving in one solid loop as if they shared the same bloodstream. Each revolution threaded him closer to her, until the true boundary of Velvet’s hands and his own started to fade.

“Class dismissed.” Goodwitch said, voice crisp and cold enough to snap Yatsuhashi’s concentration completely. “You’ll receive reviews at the end of the week.”

“Who wants lunch?” Coco asked, stretching both arms above her head. “I’m starved after all that.”

Fox clutched his stomach to mute a loud gurgle. “Yes, please.”

“Sounds good.” Velvet said, her hand still holding tightly onto his. “How about it, Yatsuhashi?”

Eating was the last thing on his mind. “Sure.”

In the cafeteria, Yatsuhashi took his usual tray, loading it down with the biggest bowl from the rack. Velvet split hers between four bowls instead, particular about about which tastes went next to what, but Coco and Fox settled for plates, darting out of the main line to cut over to where the meat was. He worked his way through the entire line of vegetables, the most colorful ones topping a huge bed of spinach and lentils, and watched Velvet divide out her share, the last bowl dedicated to a massive scoop of brown rice.

“That’s more than you usually have.” He murmured.

Her shoulders canted in a quick shrug, a smile blossoming on the edge of her mouth. “I think your Semblance made me more hungry. I can’t imagine the energy it takes.”

Yatsuhashi raised a brow. “And being invisible doesn’t?”

“Tricks of the eye are easy. You actually manipulate gravity.” Velvet said, then turned to find their table.

The corner benches were the widest, and Coco had secured the window-side table from day one, although rumors ran wild about whether she had won a bet against a senior team or just threw Lien at them until they left. He’d never asked, but it was nice to have enough room to stretch his legs out under the table. Velvet sat down after he did, fitting into the slice of space still left and starting to eat without a word. Coco and Fox both dropped their trays onto the table a moment later, weighed down with as much meat as they could cajole out of the staff behind the counter. Fox had put a passing effort into making a sandwich with two wide chunks of bread, but Coco’s idea of a meal was securing half a cow for herself and chowing down.

“You can’t actually live off steak and espresso, you know.” Velvet commented a moment later, but her grin gave the tease away.

“That’s what you think, Velv.” Coco quipped, knife delving right into the thickest slice she had. “Besides, I take a multivitamin. It’ll be fine.”

Fox wiped a bit of sauce from his mouth with the back of his hand and shrugged. “My mom makes everything as healthy as she can. I got to indulge when I have the chance.”

Listening between bites, Yatsuhashi wished the knot in the center of his stomach would unclench, if only to make room for the rest of the food. None of them seemed to mind his silence, at least, and it left him free to think. Or it would have, if Velvet hadn’t kept tucking a stray strand of hair back behind one ear, throwing the rest back over one shoulder when it refused to cooperate. Her fingers were calloused just like his, used to the hard work of the forge and raw Dust, but everywhere else was soft edges – the roundness of her face, the curve when the ears atop her head relaxed enough to ease downward.

“We’re going to smoke.” Coco announced, stacking her tray on top of Fox’s and picking them both up. “Any other takers?”

“Cigarettes?” Velvet asked, looking up from her lunch.

Flicking open one of her pockets, Coco drew out the pack with two fingers, still wrapped in cellophane. “That’s all I got until the weekend, I’m afraid.”

“I’m good, then.” She said.

Fox stretched as he got out of his seat, muscle flexing taut across the line of his shoulders. “We got to stick to the north side of the gate, though. If Professor Newcastle catches us again, we’ll get dragged in front of Goodwitch.”

Coco hummed in agreement before they walked off together, forearms close enough to brush against each other, fingers not quite meeting. Velvet polished off her lunch with a few more bites and set down her fork, glancing his way.

“You okay?” A finger gestured to his tray, everything that was left. “You didn’t have a lot.”

“Just thinking about other things, I guess.” Yatsuhashi said, keeping his eyes down.

She didn’t force the issue, and for that, he was grateful. “We can go back to the room if you want. Stretch out for a nap.”

Maybe a couple hours of sleep would sort this all out; it wouldn’t have been the first time. “Sure.”

The dorm hallway wasn’t wide enough for them to walk side by side without cutting off anyone walking the other way, so Velvet stayed in front, steps quickened to keep ahead of his stride. Then she ducked into the stairwell, following the long spiral up into their tower. One swipe of her scroll opened the door, and Yatsuhashi pulled it shut behind them, ensuring the lock set. Velvet hadn’t touched the lights, but sunlight still filtered through open curtains, enough to go by.

Bending down to open the hard latches on his boots, Yatsuhashi let out a sigh of relief as he stepped out of them, leaving the pair beside the door. Velvet’s were a bit more troublesome being bound at her thighs, but she did the same, falling back onto the bed after a light bounce on her tiptoes. Once his sode and kidney belt were set on the corner rack, he joined her, taking some solace in the cool press of the sheets.

Perhaps having his face half-buried in the pillow was a cop-out when he knew Velvet had something to say. The first word formed on her lips half a dozen times after they left the cafeteria, but she had swallowed whatever it was back down with a minute shake of her head. Except now they were really alone, not just pretending to be.

“Do you remember last month?” She finally began. “In Forever Fall?”

For their first trial run in the field away from other teams, Yatsuhashi considered it to be nigh-disastrous, but Ozpin had given all of them high marks for ingenuity and ‘adapting to unfavorable circumstances’. Hunting down a few Ursa stragglers should have been a cakewalk, but at the last minute Velvet had scouted out an alpha at the head of the group, older than it looked, and when a second one ambushed them from a half-collapsed nest with reinforcements, all hell had broken loose.

Fox said later the first alpha had probably been trying to establish its own pack and the others wanted to drag them back into the fold, but regardless of the reason, being trapped between two frothing waves of Grimm was pure chaos. He and Coco had been forced back-to-back, her gatling gun tearing into one side while he sliced through the other, but Fox’s projectiles were enraging three Grimm for every one of them he killed, and Velvet couldn’t get enough distance to use her weapon without catching everyone in the blast.

“We need their backs to us!” Coco spat, fingers locked on her manual trigger, every burst of fire going through bullets too fast to see. “Half my rounds are bouncing off that armored hide bullshit they have in front.”

“If we turn, they’ll turn with us.” Yatsuhashi said, parrying a hard swipe at his leg by cutting off the offending arm.

“I’m calling it.” Adrenaline sharpened her voice, put the steel of an order behind the words. Regardless of her buck-wild reputation, Coco was their leader for a good reason. “Velvet, Fox, book it! Opposite directions, now!”

Fear lanced through Yatsuhashi’s heart then, watching as Fox rolled out of the fray, missing the snap of claws and teeth by a hair. Eyes glowing pure white with the force of his Semblance, Fox launched himself off a shattered rock, using the height to gain a head start. A handful of Grimm scrambled to make chase, but Coco unloaded a full clip into every inch of exposed flesh and they collapsed into clouds of darkness, spreading through the air like a choking fog.

“I gotta reload, watch my six.” Coco said, feeding a fresh belt into the chamber. “Where the hell is Velvet?”

The answer was a cry of pain as Velvet’s Semblance collapsed in a flash of silver, revealing a fresh set of claw marks across her shoulder. One of the Ursa had to have guessed her position by scent alone, but it was clear why she hadn’t run when ordered. She was caught in the center of the storm, the remainder of the pack surrounding her, and hadn’t dared shout to reveal herself. There was no way out through the hungry, circling mass.

“Coco–” Yatsuhashi gasped.

“Forget me, cut Velvet a path ASAP!” She snapped back, Semblance flooding her veins and .turning both eyes a violent gold behind black lenses.

He did. Trusting in his armor to blunt the worst of the Grimms’ assault, Yatsuhashi made broad cuts through every creature in reach, trying to cleave them in two. The threat stole the Ursas’ attention from an easy feed just long enough for Velvet to vanish in a blink, Aura burning hot so hot it seared the air before nothing was left behind but the sharp tang of blood. A branch cracked above Yatsuhashi’s head and the sound was salvation; she had made it up into the trees.

It was only when the Grimm were all dead that they found each other again, drenched to the bone from a sudden downpour of spring rain. Somehow Velvet and Fox had met up further in the woods and traced a path back, the jagged red furrows along her shoulder already sealed shut. Oobleck appeared in a blur to congratulate them, Professor Peach in tow with her healing Aura at the ready, and Yatsuhashi still couldn’t quite believe that it had all been a test. Even observed the whole time, teachers ready to intervene in the worst case scenario, it felt like adrenaline had carved a permanent scar into his veins. What if he had lost her?

“Of course I do.” Yatsuhashi whispered, turning his head just enough to meet Velvet’s dark eyes. Still here and alive, in the present. “I’m sorry I–”

“Don’t apologize.” Velvet breathed out. “I can’t get this out if you’re sorry. You saved me and you know it.”

He wasn’t sure how the two went together, but nodded anyway. “Okay.”

“I…kissed Fox out in the forest.” She bit her lip, eyes falling away from his. “Besides having the worst sense of timing than anyone in Remnant, I kissed Coco’s–I don’t even know what they are together.”

“Partners.” Yatsuhashi said softly. Kissing Fox had crossed his mind more than once too, but even the teachers knew he and Coco were sleeping together. “Was he upset?”

“No.” The denial came out breathless, desperate, and Velvet flinched at her own tone. “Coco wasn’t either. He told her.”

Something was missing, some crucial piece. “Then what’s wrong?”

“I wanted to kiss  _you_.” Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. “I still do.”

The next beat of Yatsuhashi’s heart was like a thunderclap inside his chest. “But?”

“But I want Fox too. He’s so sweet, he–and Coco–” A faint laugh escaped Velvet’s lips. “–the things she says to me when we’re alone. Like we could…hell, she likes you too, Yatsuhashi. It’s not secret.”

Coco flirted as easily as breathing when the opportunity struck, but he had always chalked it up to personality instead of intention. “She hits on everyone.”

“She means it with us.” Velvet shook her head, more regret than denial. “Every time, I know the difference. It’s not fair, though, I can’t–”

The last word stuck in her throat, and Yatsuhashi frowned. “Can’t what?”

“I can’t be with three people at once.” She said through grit teeth.

He blinked, frown deepening. It would be certainly be complicated, but it wasn’t against Beacon’s rules, as far as he was aware. “If everyone was alright with it, it’s okay. We’d have to talk to them first, of course.”

“It’s okay for you.” Velvet choked out. “A polyamorous rabbit Faunus is the opening joke for every two-bit human comedian.”

Black eyes went wide, embarrassment flaring up the back of his neck. “Oh.”

“I’m not a huntress to people here, I’m prey. I wouldn’t be anyone’s girlfriend, I’d be a–”

“No.” The pieces all fell together at once and Yatsuhashi cupped her face, cradling the line of her jaw as gently as he could. “You’d be with us, no matter what people said. We’re a team and you’re always part of that. Whether we’re _together_  or just together.”

“Crushes are terrible.” Velvet murmured after a moment of silence, eyes still watery but not yet spilling over. “Don’t you think?”

“Awful.” He smiled, thumb brushing away the edge of the tears with infinite care. “But I think you’re in luck.”

Hope surged in her stare, shining bright. “Yeah?”

“At least one of them likes you back.” After a second, Yatsuhashi blinked, clearing his throat. “I mean, me.”

“Oh.”

When Velvet kissed him, it was soft and wet, her face damp from fresh-fallen tears. Folded tight in his embrace, Yatsuhashi encompassed her completely, returning the kiss until Velvet broke away, burying her face against his chest. The faint, embarrassed mumble that followed didn’t make it to his ears intact, but he kept her close until stillness brought on the rhythm of sleep, and his eyes closed too.

–

Whatever great seismic shift he expected afterwards never came, nor were the boundaries they shared instantly overwritten. It was a change by degrees, where Velvet sometimes kept her hand on his knee under the table during breakfast, and some mornings he kissed her good morning before class. The routine was comfortable, held to no restriction or timeline; when she reached out to him, Yatsuhashi reached back, and in the moments he needed her, Velvet appeared as if from thin air.

Well, she’d always been able to do that.

When he closed his eyes – while Velvet was closest, her hands on his chest, knees balanced at precarious points on his thighs so they could kiss without putting a crick in each other’s necks – Yatsuhashi swore he felt the leylines of Aura that jumped from body to body, silver filaments thinner than thread yet stronger than anything human hands could forge. Every strand ran bone-deep, providing the strength that allowed Velvet to kick hard enough to shatter a Beowulf’s skull, let him hold up the entrance of an entire nest when it threatened to collapse around them.

Still, it was hard not to worry about hurting Velvet when her body was barely wider than his hands beside each other, muscle coiled tight and lithe rather than filling out her frame. As Velvet guided his touch, he followed, but refused to stray outside those lines without explicit permission. Yatsuhashi watched frustration flare when she wrinkled her nose, both arms thrown loosely around his shoulders like a scarf.

“You’re enough to drive a girl bonkers, Yatsuhashi.” No malice served her voice; in fact, a faint pink flush was climbing up Velvet’s cheeks. “Am I rushing you?”

He blinked, then shook his head. “How far did you want to go?”

“Well,  _that’s_  a loaded question.” Hiding her face in the line of his shoulder, Velvet let out a soft laugh. “I want all of you, all the time.”

“I want you too.” It was almost a whisper, held deep in his chest, and Velvet’s arms tightened around him.

Yatsuhashi glanced over at the door for the calming reminder that it was locked, that Coco and Fox had just left for a shopping spree, which meant a minimum of several hours perusing windows and shelves, an hour break for dinner, and then another hour to actually pay for everything. They would have all the privacy required, to be sure, but a nervous flutter still ricocheted through his chest, soothed when Velvet kissed along the edge of his shirt collar, lips barely brushing skin. If he asked to wait, there was no question she’d stop without complaint, but the source of his concern wouldn’t vanish tomorrow or the next day; he couldn’t change his size in the blink of an eye.

“Maybe we should just see each other first.” Velvet said, the light pressure of her fingertips skirting over white cotton, across the planes of his back. “I mean, in the real way, not throwing gear at each other in the locker room halfway into uniform.”

Well, there weren’t many ways that could go wrong. “Sounds like a plan.”

It took a moment before Velvet fully extricated herself from his lap, moving to the opposite side of the bed. Bringing up his knees to give her more space, Yatsuhashi put his shoulders right up against the headboard, pillows squished against the small of his back. Both of their uniform jackets had been hung up already, shoes cast away and his tie set beside Fox’s in the drawer, so there wasn’t much to do save for starting to unbutton his shirt. Even with the largest size Beacon had to offer – they didn’t even make a vest he could wear – Yatsuhashi found the collar tight around his throat, and it was a respite to work it open, distracting from the smallest tremble in tense fingertips.

He had just unbuttoned the cuffs when Velvet’s vest was undone, shirt drawn up over her head in one long stretch. The ears atop her head gave an annoyed twitch at the sensation, which he was sure could only feel fairly strange, but Yatsuhashi let his eyes drift lower after a brief hesitation, trying not to jump when Velvet let out a sigh of relief. The source was the clasp of her bra unhooking, it seemed, but the back of his neck still felt hot when she finally tossed it aside, and he fumbled to tug his shirt off the rest of the way and make them equal.

In only skirt and stockings, Velvet looked a hundred times more relaxed than he felt, eyes half-lidded and a smile quirking at the edge of her lips when he reached his belt. Yatsuhashi wagered his blood spiked ten degrees just from that look, but in the wake of his nerves came a jolt of excitement too, and he tugged the buckle open as Velvet started to roll her stockings down her thighs, thumbs carefully hooked in the dark material to prevent any snags. His trousers came off without any trouble, leaving him in nothing but the green briefs he’d thrown on without thinking this morning. A minor comfort lingered in the fact that they hadn’t come back to their dorm in full combat uniform; removing his cup was unwieldy at best.

There was a soft swish of fabric as Velvet tossed her skirt to the end of the bed, and she closed the distance between them with more grace that should have been possible while kneeling on such slippery sheets. When her knees brushed against the inside of his thighs, Yatsuhashi felt them like little points of heat, but that was nothing compared to when Velvet kissed him again, her entire body pressing forward to meet his. Softness and strength collided in a single, heady combination, and he returned the kiss with a surprised shiver, slipping one arm around Velvet’s back to keep her braced.

“We still doing okay?” She asked, tilting her head up so they were eye-to-eye.

“You’re beautiful.” Yatsuhashi mumbled, knuckles drawing a gentle line along her shoulder blades. “I mean, you are dressed too, I just–”

Velvet pressed a quick kiss to his nose, smiling wide. “I know what you meant. You’re a handsome sight yourself, you know.”

“I apologize if–” Swallowing down the knot in his throat, he tried to think of the best way to phrase this. “–it’s my first time with a–”

“Don’t worry about it.” Velvet’s ears flopped down, a teasing chastisement right on the top of his head. “It’s not really different with Faunus. Just don’t grab onto these and we’ll be okay.”

“A woman, I mean.” Yatsuhashi creaked out from through clenched teeth, bright red. “I’ve had boyfriends back home, but–”

“ _Oh_.” Suddenly blushing as deep as he was, Velvet bit her lip and looked down. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed you meant–”

“I know what people say to you.” He interrupted softly. “It’s a fair assumption.”

Another minute passed before the mutual embarrassment faded enough for Velvet to frame his face and prompt another kiss, deeper this time and more urgent. Her hips rolled forward and Yatsuhashi swallowed a groan, the friction just enough to send a bright jolt up his spine. Before long, she was grinding against him in earnest, and Yatsuhashi allowed his hands to wander, along her shoulders, her breasts, the flare of her hips until he knew every inch even with his eyes closed.

Nails scratched in light red lines down his stomach, stopping right above the band of the briefs, and Yatsuhashi knew his cock was visibly straining through the fabric. Before he could warn her, say anything, Velvet’s hand dropped that much lower; fingers cupping around his shaft. A gasp caught in Yatsuhashi’s throat right as she smiled, offering a light squeeze.

“We should get rid of the rest, huh?” Velvet asked, and he managed a nod.

She broke contact just long enough to slide her panties down and toss them aside, not looking back to see where they fell. A careful tilt of his hips allowed enough room for him to do the same with his briefs, and the freedom of having them gone lasted only a second or so before Velvet noticed, eyes going wide. Yatsuhashi fought to keep his heart from sinking, even if he couldn’t really blame her for being alarmed.

“Wow.” Recovering the slight slack in her jaw, Velvet cleared her throat. “That’s impressive.”

Considering he was only half-hard, Yatsuhashi wasn’t sure if anything he said would make things better or worse. “And why I was concerned about…hurting you.”

“It would hurt you too, I think. There’s only so much I can relax.” By some miracle, Velvet didn’t sound disappointed, just thoughtful. “…What did you do with your old boyfriend?”

“Intercrural, mostly.” Simple yet effective, considering there hadn’t been anywhere to get ahold of lube or condoms that wouldn’t have gone straight back to his parents. Not that they’d mind him dating a blacksmith, but the idea of his mother knowing what he had bought and why was a bit too much to bear. “Or he used his hand, if…we were in a rush.”

“Well, I can do that too.” Velvet said, smile eager even if her face was slightly flushed. “If you’re comfortable with trying it.”

Yatsuhashi nodded again, the tension in his chest bleeding away. “As long as it feels good for you too.”

“I think it will.” Then her hand found him again, the slow brush of fingertips along the underside of his cock a deliberate temptation. “Warm me up?”

It took some slight maneuvering – Velvet stabilizing herself against his shoulder while his arm kept her from tilting back – but Yatsuhashi was able to keep a hand angled between her thighs as she stroked him from base to head, thumb teasing that sensitive edge until he shuddered, cock straining up towards his stomach. She was wet to the touch, spreading open under his fingers, and guided by Velvet’s breathy sighs, every place that made her hips cant forward, Yatsuhashi divined where to linger. The slick valley below the swell of Velvet’s clit and keeping gentle pressure against her entrance were favored targets until her mouth covered his in a hard, hungry kiss, demanding more.

“Let me,” another kiss was stolen, quick and messy, “get on all fours.”

A groan of agreement left his throat before Yatsuhashi wrangled the last bit of reason left in his head into words. “Do we need protection? I won’t be inside you but–”

Velvet shook her head. “I have the shot like Coco does, and I…haven’t been with anyone since my med exam to get on the mainland. You?”

“Not since I was given a clean bill of health for school.” He hadn’t been surprised when the doctors ran a full battery of tests; hunters were known for being more ‘active’ than most. “Unless you mind the mess.”

She shrugged, the warmth of her hand leaving him as Velvet scooted back further on both knees.“We’ll have an excuse to change the sheets for once. Coco bought at least a dozen sets, I think.”

At a minimum – even folded, they took up two separate shelves in the closet.

With her elbows braced against the pillows and hips raised, Yatsuhashi was struck by the sheer difference in their size as he made to kneel behind her. Yet Velvet didn’t appear to be the least bit concerned, head turned just enough to watch him over her shoulder, legs parting wider without any hesitation. Proof of her arousal still remained on Yatsuhashi’s fingers, sticky and clear, enough to bolster his confidence as he fit his cock between her thighs, sliding right against the heat there before he bit back a groan.  _That_  was certainly different compared to other times, but a net positive in his eyes, and Yatsuhashi tested the position with a shallow thrust, only for Velvet to bury her face in the pillow and moan.

“Oh–” When her knees edged together another inch, the pressure increased around the base of his shaft, and Yatsuhashi gripped Velvet’s hips to steady himself. “I think this can work.”

In the beginning, Yatsuhashi kept a slow and even rhythm, the head of his cock teasing against her clit every time he drew back and slipping along Velvet’s folds with ease until she was dripping wet, fists taking a white-knuckled grip on the pillows when her hips jerked back. As she moved faster, Yatsuhashi met the pace, the friction and Velvet’s breathless gasps chipping through his focus until he risked leaning down over her, arms keeping him propped up on all fours. His presence against her back, however controlled, provoked a shudder that echoed right through him, and Yatsuhashi continued to rock his hips to keep Velvet from losing her volume.

“Is this okay?” He had to make sure, absolutely sure, even if the question was strung together by a low rumble, nearly a growl.

“Yes!” One of Velvet’s hands slipped over his, nails biting into broad knuckles. “Stay against me, you feel amazing–”

No one had ever said that before, leaving Yatsuhashi quietly glad that Velvet couldn’t see the look on his face as it processed, burning hot as a brand across both cheeks. Deciding to show his gratitude another way, he kissed a trail between her shoulder blades, past the curtain of dark brown hair to the nape of Velvet’s neck as his hips thrust. When Yatsuhashi dared with an experimental graze of his teeth, the answering  _oh fuck_  cast under her breath was a shock of its own, but one that made him smile. As careful as he was not to mark her skin, the threat of it was enough to spur Velvet on anyway, or so it seemed.

Tension coiled in the base of Yatsuhashi’s spine like steel wire, spreading down to the tight flex of muscle in his legs, knees pressing deep into the mattress as Velvet arched underneath him. With each quickened breath, his blood felt hotter, and she was unbelievably wet, leaving every inch of his shaft slick whenever their hips met. She was so strong, keeping upright against him, all that power barely contained and so very close to breaking free. The groan that escaped Yatsuhashi’s throat was deep and desperate, body chasing that last bit of pleasure to tip him over the edge.

His even, relentless pace broke down to staggered thrusts as he came, release spilling across Velvet’s stomach and to the sheets in sticky, white-hot strands. Yatsuhashi had closed his eyes by instinct, gasping into the curve of Velvet’s shoulder as bliss suffused his veins, warm and bright. In its wake was simple relief, and when Yatsuhashi cobbled his thoughts back together, Velvet was shaking underneath him, rolling her hips back to keep up the rhythm where he had faltered.

“Are you close?” He asked, breathless against Velvet’s ear.

Her answer was a  _yes_  just shy of begging, and with his body tightly braced, Yatsuhashi’s fingers skirted down Velvet’s breasts, her stomach, and back to where he had touched her before. There was precision in his hands that his cock couldn’t provide, and the direct strokes circling her clit turned the constant teasing friction into a tension that made Velvet cry out, the sound falling into a broken chant of  _please_  tied up in the syllables of his name. When Velvet’s orgasm hit, she grasped his other hand so tight his Aura flared in sympathy, and Yatsuhashi lay kisses from shoulder to shoulder until the last aftershock faded, her hips going still.

For a moment he could barely think, the weight of what they’d done washing over him. Deep down, Yatsuhashi had expected Velvet to pull away before they ever got this far, whether because he was human or the trouble of sheer incompatibility. Instead, Velvet reached back to stroke his hair, keep him pressed against her back as she caught her breath, letting out a faint mm when he finally let his hand fall from between her thighs and absently wiped away the remnants off the sheets. Those were a lost cause, anyway.

Yatsuhashi straightened up when Velvet sank against the bed with a satisfied sigh, not wanting to crush her underneath him. “Are you alright?”

“More than alright.” Turning over onto her back, Velvet arched into a full-bodied stretch that left Yatsuhashi’s mouth dry. The flush of arousal stayed bright under her skin, eyes dark and half-lidded, and she seemed entirely unperturbed by the stray drops of come scattered across her stomach. “You going somewhere, Yatsuhashi?”

Not if a pack of Beowolves tried to drag him out of the room. “Just away from the wet spot.”

“Fair enough.” Velvet rolled onto her side, extending a hand toward his. “Come lay with me.”

There was just enough space for him to fit without pressing back against the far wall, legs stretched out to the very end of the bed,  but with some rearrangement of the pillows, Yatsuhashi could stay eye-to-eye with her, Velvet’s breasts pressed flush against his chest. Limited reach made it hard to do more than hook her arm around his ribs, but she fit right into his embrace, knee pressed down against the mattress to ensure any shifting wouldn’t have her knock the wind right out of him. A soft kiss broke the stillness before Velvet nuzzled the line of his throat, one of her ears playfully flopping against Yatsuhashi’s nose when he shivered – it tickled.

“I see a shower in our future.” Velvet mumbled, the words a faint vibration against his shoulder.

Not to mention changing the sheets before Coco and Fox came back from their shopping trip. “Definitely.”

For now, Yatsuhashi was entirely content to hold her, wrapped in the golden warmth of afterglow. When he closed his eyes, that subtle pull remained, a thread of Aura passing from heart to heart in a single, infinite loop.

 


	6. Coco/Yatsuhashi

_Fox and I are stealing away on a date tonight. I left my Advanced Dust Engineering notes on the big desk if you want to study later. Love you!_

A couple key taps on her scroll sent back a reply to Velvet, and Coco smiled. She’d wondered why Fox had laid out his nice shirt this morning and now there was an answer. Knowing them, it would be dinner and a night with one of those sensory bands that were all the rage now; they both had sensitive enough ears that apparently the wave of sound felt like getting high. Hell, it was probably cheaper than the stuff she brought from home.

After pocketing her scroll, Coco started climbing the spiral stairs to the farthest tower – the elevator was so narrow it made her feel claustrophobic – until getting to the last door on the right: home sweet home. Right before dinner, she’d expected Yatsuhashi to already be downstairs and waiting for the kitchen to open up, but he was inside when she stepped past the threshold, hunched over his desk. Hunched was putting it lightly, maybe; his shoulders were almost as wide as the furniture.

“Hey, big guy, what’s going on?” Coco stopped a couple inches short of his chair, squinting behind her sunglasses.

Out of the four of them, Yatsuhashi was the only one who’d ever taken all his class notes by hand, insisting it was faster than punching into a screen. Considering that his grades rivaled Velvet’s, Coco never had an excuse to argue, and she was used to seeing his thick notebooks scattered around around the room. This time, however, it was a letter, long enough that several pages were laying side by side in front of him.

She couldn’t read it, not really. Velvet had picked up his native tongue and some of the writing starting in freshman year, soaking up Yatsuhashi’s private lessons like a sponge, but Coco had never really had a head for other languages. The characters on the paper looked more like art to her eyes, flowing black ink arranged by a steady hand, but after this long, she’d picked up a few just from repetition. One was ‘son’, the other was ‘mother’, and the Daichi stamp had been imprinted on the edge.

Oh, a family thing.

Laying one hand on his shoulder, her fingers subtly tightened, just enough so he’d feel the pressure. “You coming down to eat?”

“I need to figure out how to answer this.” Yatsuhashi said.

The pen next to his hand was still capped, fresh paper set out of reach.

There was a hard knot of tension right under her thumb. Coco started to work circles around it, ease away what she could. “What’s it say?”

Yatsuhashi was quiet for a minute, but she knew to be patient, let him think it through. Unless he pushed her hands away, it was just a matter of time, not a refusal or the will to be left alone. Fingers slipping under the black collar of his shirt, Coco found the taut muscle that tapered up his nape, all the tight tendons in between. Leather warmed against bare skin as she rolled her thumbs, palms rubbing in an even rhythm.

“They want me to come home.” Yatsuhashi finally answered, head craning down towards the desk. “We graduate in six months, and they still want me to come home.”

Coco sucked in a breath between her teeth. A lot of parents didn’t jump for joy when their kids signed up for a hunting academy, even if they had been hunters themselves; it was hard, dangerous work without much of a retirement plan to speak of. Even her dad had raised a bit of a fuss when she applied to Beacon, insisting that she would have her full shares in the business at eighteen, but Coco didn’t see why she couldn’t do both. Hunting didn’t have to be a full time job, but she had to have all the skills in the first place to even consider it.

Velvet’s parents worried too, but they were Menagerie-born and knew the worst things that humans could do – it wasn’t even about the Grimm. Nonetheless, Coco heard the pride in their voices whenever she heard Velvet talking to them over a scroll call, whereas Fox’s mom would have been concerned anywhere he went that wasn’t home, but she had relented after a couple years to, accepted his battle scars just like everything else.

But with Yatsuhashi, they were all afraid. His family had a good life in trade and transportation out of eastern Vacuo and unless another kid sprung up out of nowhere, he was the sole heir. On the off-chance that she kicked it, Coco knew her married aunts had rights to split whatever inheritance was doled out on her side. There was always a backup plan when it came to the dynasty.

“They just don’t want you getting hurt, Yatsu. You know that.” She said softly.

“But they don’t know about you all either. That I’m with anyone.” Letting out a deep sigh, Yatsuhashi’s head fell down against his hands. “They’d think I was staying because of…love. Not because I want to be a huntsman.”

Coco smiled. “You can have romance and Grimm at the same time, big guy. Isn’t that what every cheesy hunter rom-com is about?”

Silence again, longer than the first time. There was a light tremble as her hands continued to move, massaging outward to the hard swell of his shoulders. Little by little, the tension was giving away.

“Rejecting what they want for me, it’s like rejecting them. Every page of this is my mother asking me to come back, that they have a place for me right next to my father. It’s not too late to learn all he has to teach.”

Her smile faded before she placed a kiss on the top of his head. “None of us would think any less of you if  _you_  wanted to go, Yatsu. We’d never keep you here if it meant you were unhappy.”

“I  _am_  happy.” The words snapped out of him, sharp and sudden. “Every morning I wake up to three people who care about me, who live with me and share my drive and everything I want to do. I just want them to want that for me too.”

“Hey.” Coco’s arms wrapped around Yatsuhashi from behind, pulling him back against her chest. “You have us either way, whether you tell them or not. But they can’t really judge you right without the whole picture, can they?”

She waited for the counterpoint, but all he did was clasp his hands over hers. If pressed, Yatsuhashi could probably pick up an Ursa and throw it right over his head, but his touch was always measured and gentle, no matter how twisted up his feelings were. They stayed there, interlocked, and he let out a deep breath of relief, shoulders sinking until his frame was relaxed against the chair. Coco pressed another kiss behind his ear, heard a soft rumble as the warm breath tickled.

“What can I do for you, huh? We’ve got the whole night to ourselves.” Longer, if she sent Velvet a text asking for some grace. “We could go out for dinner. We could spar. I bet we could trick some freshmen into going two-on-four.”

“I’m not really hungry.” Yatsuhashi admitted. “And you could beat the first years one-on-four.”

Coco shrugged, an easy roll of her shoulders. “Well, yeah, but it’s way more fun with backup.”

“I think I’d rather stay in.” He tilted his head to the side, drawing out a couple of long pops. “But out of this chair. It’s killing my back.”

Like most furniture at Beacon, it wasn’t sized for someone seven foot solid and built to spec. Coco pulled away just long enough for him to get out of the chair and cross the distance to the bed, his dark trousers rustling against the comforter. Yatsuhashi had to sit up against the headboard to completely fit – the last two inches he’d picked up finally put his feet over the edge of the frame – but it was wide enough for Coco to settle between his knees and keep them both comfortable.

Without the steel sode and thick leather belt guarding his center, Coco could see Yatsuhashi completely, unarmored. Her heels toppled over the side of the bed after she stripped them off, and after a second thought, the beret was taken off too, set carefully on the bedside table. Settling into the circle of his arms took no effort at all; it was more like a reflex than anything else, securing her own grip around Yatsuhashi’s body. A light tug pulled his shirt up out of his waistband so she could stroke the column of his back – the corded muscles there were her favorite, making for a spectacular sight whenever the team hit the gym. Coco had seen Velvet’s mouth go dry watching him do deadlifts before; she definitely wasn’t appreciating it alone.

“Tell me what you want, okay?” Leaning up to press a kiss to his brow, her smile returned by degrees. “I got you.”

“You’re so close and it feels like you might just slip away.” Yatsuhashi’s embrace tightened, hands sliding over cambric and leather. “We’re really going to do this? Graduate, go hunt in the wild?”

“You bet your ass.” Coco leaned back, looking at him over the lenses of her glasses. “Any Grimm who scouts the borders is going to have somethin’ coming.”

“Four years.” The headboard creaked when he straightened up, pulled her closer. “I can’t believe I’m finally going to have a hunting license in my hand.”

“We could have blitzed the final last semester.” Black fabric stretched as she brought the shirt up over Yatsuhashi’s head, tossing it in the same place as her shoes. “Now? It’ll be a cakewalk.”

Her scarf went next, the dark rose pulled free, and his fingers snagged the tight buckle around her waist. Coco peeled away the cincher and sighed, running her thumb fondly over the bulletproof lining before letting it fall aside. Usually she stopped once her pants were taut around her knees, shirt tugged open just far enough for hands to wander, but Coco had a feeling Yatsuhashi wasn’t in the mood for a one-and-done; he needed skin to skin.

Slate-colored boxers bunched up around his thighs as soon as she got rid of the trousers too, and Coco didn’t resist the urge to explore there, tracing the light sheen of sweat between striations of muscle. She had legs to kill for, there was no question, but Coco was pretty sure Yatsuhashi could crush someone’s skull between his just by flexing. When her hands got high enough to feel him through soft cotton, thumb drawing a curious line up his shaft, he wasn’t hard yet, but sometimes that could take a while.

Throwing a little more caution to the wind, Coco peeled away her gloves and abandoned them to the nightstand. Yatsuhashi blinked, failing to completely stifle his surprise. There were days when she couldn’t stand to be touched at all, the recoil instinctive and unsettling, but for the time being the reflex was stifled, and she intended to take full advantage of it.

“You sure?” He asked.

“I can be bare as long as we don’t go bareback.” Coco quipped, opening the drawer underneath to fetch some lube and the condoms set aside just for him. She’d bought a whole box after freshman year, just to make sure they’d always fit.

Yatsuhashi lifted his hips to ease his boxers down and Coco fondly ran her fingers over the faint, dark trail following the rigid planes of his stomach to the curls above the base of his cock, lingering there until she caught him trying not to smile. Heat jumped off Yatsuhashi’s skin when her hand wrapped around him in a loose grip, the first stroke up ending with teasing contact between foreskin and head, making him shiver.

Time had proven he could be as sensitive as Velvet to a gentle touch, but it made sense. They were partners after all, and nothing but tender to each other in and out of bed. Coco knew to hold back her first instinct to vent her desires no matter how hot they boiled, because it would make Yatsuhashi shy away more than anything else.  People either thought his size made him untouchable or that he could take anything that was dished out without feeling it, which irked her to the core. They didn’t know him, and they didn’t try to.

Whatever was whispered in the hallways about her – endless ego and money, mostly – Coco never tolerated anyone mistreating her team, and that meant knowing them as well as they knew themselves.

A slight flush spread across the width of Yatsuhashi’s chest as her hand worked a touch faster, until the mix of gentle strokes and quick friction had him half-hard and well on the path to being ready. After absentmindedly brushing her hair out of her face, Coco leaned down and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the head of his cock, tongue flicking out to tease the sensitive skin right above where her fingers lay. A groan reverberated low in Yatsuhashi’s chest as he gripped the sheets, muscle tensing in hard lines up his thighs.

“Is the condom for the mess or,” his brow furrowed, eyes flickering from his to the foil wrapper and back again, “Coco, you don’t have to do that.”

“Have to? No, but I like to, no matter how much you worry about whether or not I do.” Coco flipped the condom between her fingers, offering it his way. While she had plenty of practice, it was usually easier for Yatsuhashi to do it himself, between his size and being uncut. “But the question is whether or not  _you_  want to, babe. Bump and grind instead is totally fine by me.”

Despite a brief bout of hesitation on his face, he took it from her faster than she could ever remember before; definitely a good call. There were plenty of simple facts in the world, and one of them was that Yatsuhashi was huge. While he wasn’t completely in proportion – it would be weapon-worthy at that point – he came close enough to be a concern for physical compatibility.

Within the team, that fell out differently. Velvet wanted to but simply couldn’t take him without them both hurting each other, Fox wasn’t into that sort of thing, but after one night with a lot of liquid courage to bolster her curiosity, Coco found out that she could handle Yatsuhashi all the way as long as they took their time. He’d been surprised enough that the whole thing lasted barely five minutes, but the two of them had spent the next ten just lost in each other and how it felt. It was still one of Coco’s favorite nights with him, really.

Besides, she couldn’t help but feel a little proud. No Adel ever backed down because something took good old-fashioned hard work, even if it meant ordering enough lube that the store comped free shipping.

“Are you warmed up enough?” Yatsuhashi checked that the condom was right, giving Coco a moment to admire how he looked through sheer latex. Not her material most of the time, but seeing his cock strain against it was almost enough to change her mind.

“I will be once your hands are free.” Coco pressed up against him, knees pinning his thighs in place so she could have enough leverage to bring them eye-to-eye. “Hey.”

“Hey.” He sighed the word, brow bumping hers gently.

“Leader knows best, huh?” A smirk tugged at the edge of Coco’s mouth. “You know I won’t take you anywhere I can’t get you out, yeah? I don’t care if it’s on a hunt, life, or just us right here and right now. Feel what you’re feelin’. I’ll be with you.”

His silence held for a minute flat before Coco felt his palm against her stomach, making its way down by centimeters past the boundary of her hips. “I want to tell them everything.”

“If they love you, it shouldn’t matter.” Yatsuhashi’s fingers skirted the curls between her thighs, and Coco’s breath hitched. “But if for some reason it does matter, you have us. You’ll always be Daichi Yatsuhashi.”

“Yatsu to you,” he murmured, amusement deepening his voice right before arousal made his fingers slick, Coco’s folds parting under the lightest pressure.

“I can’t play favorites.” The protest was matched by a wicked smile. “Everyone gets a nickname. Or two.”

“I know Velvet’s.” No surprise there. Coco hummed in approval when one finger slid inside her, the brief stretch turning into relief within seconds. “What’s Fox’s?”

“He’s got a few. ‘Partner’ or ‘sweet talker’. But no matter what, he’s always my beautiful boy.” She bit back a groan when Yatsuhashi added a second finger, hips rocking forward to take both deeper and steal some attention from his palm for her clit. “Mm, I know what you call him.”

Yatsuhashi’s indignant blush was a sight to behold, but the even thrust of his fingers distracted her in seconds, hands settling on his shoulders to take hold of the strength there, feel muscle ftense with every movement. When Coco relaxed around for a third, he was slick up to the knuckles, and as soon as he found a good pace, fingers curling against a particular spot, she moaned to encourage him.

“You ready for me?” Coco asked, breathless as she reached back to find the lube, searching the sheets until catching onto the clear bottle.

He nodded, that calm rhythm stalling inside her. “I could make you come first.”

“You could, but I’m practicing being patient for once.” Still, an instinctive gasp of loss escaped her throat when Yatsuhashi’s hand withdrew, leaving her empty if only for a moment. Coco shivered and popped the cap of the bottle open, leaning back on her heels to make sure he was hard as he could be.

Sometimes guys lost it, even in the heat of the moment – no big deal.

The lube squeezed clear between Coco’s fingers as she worked it up his cock, smoothing a little hitch in the condom down with her thumb. Once that was done, the rest went between her legs, applied with slow, exploring thrusts until everywhere she touched was wet and yielding. Maybe it was overkill to have it dripping past her folds, but in this case, more was so much easier to deal with than less.

She wiped the sticky remnants off onto the sheets – they had about a hundred spares shoved into the closet – and smiled at Yatsuhashi before raising her hips, one hand on his shoulder for support and the other ready to guide his cock into place. “You okay, Yatsu?”

A soft caress up her back and the longing in his dark eyes was answer enough, but he still said, “Yes. Just be careful.”

“Not really my style, big guy.” Coco teased, but it was with caution and care that she aligned the head of his cock with her entrance and lowered her hips barely an inch.

That initial push was always the tense moment; long and thick was a hell of a combo, but she let out a deep breath and the next nudge of her hips was enough to start taking him in. Yatsuhashi gasped, keeping his body disciplined and still past the second inch, the third, and more until Coco reached the halfway mark and let her guiding hand join the other one gripping his shoulder. She could manage the rest with a slow, controlled descent, pausing when they both needed to take a breath.

No matter how good the thought of throwing control right out of the window sounded sometimes.

“You with me?” Coco murmured, watching Yatsuhashi’s eyes flutter, his jaw tense. Another inch and she already felt warm and full, but there was a bit more to go.

“Yes.” He finally answered, even as a taut muscle in his thigh quivered. “It’s very…difficult to think when we do this.”

“You don’t have to think,” she countered, tone low and soothing, a kiss pressed to his temple, “just feel me.”

There was a stall before the very last inch, the stretch edging on too much before Coco shifted the slant of her hips, letting out a moan of pure relief when her knees were flush with the sheets again, body locked in place with his. Yatsuhashi’s eyes met hers, the worry there dispelled by a smile.

“Velvet gives me hell when I think she’ll break. She never does, and I don’t either.” Coco placed another kiss on his mouth, teeth nipping Yatsuhashi’s lower lip right at the end. “You know what I want. And you feel so fucking good.”

With the leverage of her grip, it wasn’t hard to raise a few inches and sink back down, and after the second try, Coco found a rhythm, keeping her gaze locked on his. The surprise of the sensation quickly became wide-eyed pleasure, soft grunts exchanged between heated breaths. It was quiet, in a way that Coco rarely felt the urge for, but with Yatsuhashi it seemed right, just how things were meant to be.

Tension and pressure collided low in her stomach as she rode him, always just shy of letting his cock slip out before taking him back to the base. Every time, it send a shock of liquid heat up her spine, forcing Coco breathe to harder as a sweet pink haze fell over her thoughts. This was all instinct, kissing Yatsuhashi as his hands found her hips, moving perfectly in sync. She had been close enough with his fingers working deep; now she was on the edge and held there, nails leaving half-moon imprints across Yatsuhashi’s shoulders.

One arm slid up to encircle her back, the width of his forearm flush against her shoulder blades, and Coco cursed under her breath. The warmth under her skin had reached a fever pitch, driving her to kiss Yatsuhashi again until they were gasping into each other’s mouths, and his free hand fell between her thighs, finding her clit in the same instant that her hips lowered again. Coco moaned, tightening around him enough that black eyes went blank, the sensation almost too much to stand until Yatsuhashi inhaled, hard and ragged, the steady pressure of his fingers and one more desperate thrust severing her last thread of control.

His name tumbled out of Coco’s mouth as she came, arms thrown around Yatsuhashi’s shoulders and pulling him closer, as close as they could possibly be. He had to feel every shudder that went through her body, the sweat and slick heat at the anchor points where their thighs pressed together, the clench and release of every wave of pleasure, just like she felt his strength surge, muscle flexing as Yatsuhashi spent himself a moment later, the sound that left his throat divided between pain spent and relief found. It was release as it was meant to be, venting the tension Coco had sensed the second she’d walked into the room. For the time being, anyway.

“I can’t last with you,” Yatsuhashi murmured, and Coco could barely hear him over the pulse of her heart beating a tattoo against her chest, echoing up to her skull. “It doesn’t seem fair.”

“I don’t mind.” She really didn’t; they’d both met their mark, who cared about the time it did or didn’t take? “Hell, it’s our special thing. Unless you’d rather work an hour to get me off?”

He laughed and the sound filled his chest, booming and open. “That sounds like a challenge.”

“Hell, no. I like it the other way around, when the three of you touch me until I can’t even spell ‘orgasm’.” The timing had to be right – for all of them – but the few occasions it happened, Coco had skipped class the next day to recover. “You okay for me to get off?”

“I thought you already had.” Yatsuhashi raised a brow.

Her knuckles rapped his chest, eyes rolling. “You’ve been swapping lines with Fox.”

In turn he shrugged, amusement drawing out a knowing smile. “I can’t help what I overhear in the locker room when you two won’t close the shower door.”

“You and Velvet didn’t even make it into the shower last week.” It had been quite an image, though; Velvet with her back against the row of lockers, held up with her legs over Yatsuhashi’s shoulders and his hands supporting her hips. Coco wondered what it would feel like to come with her body suspended like that, feet off the floor, but Velvet had a bit of an advantage there, being so much shorter. “What did she whisper in your ear after that match?”

Yatsuhashi held up one hand, crossing the first two fingers. “Partner stuff.”

That was their code for a secret, and Coco understood. Just because they were all together didn’t mean there weren’t private moments, things that never needed to be shared aloud. She adjusted her grip on Yatsuhashi’s shoulders before drawing in a deep breath and staring to raise her hips up. A faint twinge in one calf protested the movement, but the moment his cock slipped out of her completely, Coco shivered, the faint circulation of air in the room starting to cool the arousal between her thighs. She ached to come back to him, but twice in one night was asking for something to really hurt.

Yatsuhashi stripped the condom away and tossed it in the trash, taking advantage of his reach to snag a towel that had fallen off the side of the bed earlier in the day. He drew it over her skin, cleaning up all that he could before doing the same to himself. They both needed to wash up like nobody’s business, but Coco stole a glance at the scroll on the close table and saw there was another hour or two before Fox and Velvet would come back from their concert, blissed out and in the mood to cuddle. Coco always loved having the entire team in bed, but tonight it felt more like a need than habit, an urge driven to prove to Yatsuhashi that they were here, would always stay.

“So what I’m thinking is that I got that external screen we can hook up on the end of the bed. Once our partners come back from singing the body electric, anyway.” She stole a quick kiss, felt Yatsuhashi smile against her mouth. “Whole nine yards. Make the popcorn Fox stole out of the kitchen, watch some flick that’s sugary enough to rot your teeth. Then we’ll wake up to a brand new day, huh?”

The smile faded, replaced by a sigh, but he offered a solid nod back. “Yeah.”

After settling under the covers, Coco watched Yatsuhashi turn on his side and curl up, head resting in her lap. She drew her fingers in slow circles over the fine fuzz of his buzzcut, the cleancut line at the base of his neck. The letter lingered on the desk in the corner of her vision, but rather than give it any more attention than it deserved, Coco took her sunglasses back from their perch, putting them back in place.

The only thing she needed now was to keep looking straight ahead, and hold fast against anyone who got in their way.

–


End file.
